Shooting set for late March in Puerto Rico

Sarah Siegel-Magness is directing “Castro’s Daughter” and producing with Gary Magness through her Smokewood Entertainment banner along with Mankind Entertainment ’s John Martinez O’Felan and Joe Lamy. The screenplay was written by Bobby Moresco (“Crash”) and and Nilo Cruz, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play “Anna in the Tropics.”

Sandino Moreno came on board in November to play Alina Fernandez, who was born in 1956, three years before her father Fidel Castro took power. She fled Cuba as a dissident in 1993 disguised as a Spanish tourist and later wrote her memoir “Castro’s Daughter: An Exile’s Memoir of Cuba.”

Valderrama, who starred in “That ’70s Show,” will portray Eduardo — a childhood friend of Fernandez who is persecuted under the Castro regime and eventually ordered to leave on the 1980 Mariel Boatlift during which Castro emptied his jails and allowed 125,000 refugees to flee to the U.S.

Producers have also hired production designer Brigitte Broch, who won an Oscar for “Moulin Rouge.” They noted that “Castro’s Daughter” is heading toward production at a time of potential warming relations between the U.S. and Cuba following a handshake between President Obama and Castro’s brother Raul at Nelson Mandela’s funeral.

Valderrama is part of the cast of Robert Rodriguez’ upcoming “From Dusk Till Dawn: The Series.”